The history of interior design is often overshadowed by architectural history, but this new book claims to be the first comprehensive critical account of interiors in Britain over the past century. Its ambition is clear: to disentangle interior design from the architectural narrative and to show it as a discipline shaped by social and cultural change, as well as by client tastes as they have evolved over the last hundred years.
Interior design, as the authors stress, is a modern profession which only really crystallised in the early 20th century. Before then, domestic interiors were shaped by architects, decorators and craftspeople, but there wasn’t a distinct professional identity for interior designers. Given this, and the fact that interior design can respond quickly to shifts in taste, technology and consumer culture (unlike architecture, which tends to move at a slower pace), it seems valuable to look at how the field of interior design has evolved over the last century and what insights we can glean from this.
This book follows the evolution of British interior design through the Art Deco theatres and public interiors of the 1920s and 30s to the post-war period of austerity and reconstruction. It then traces how commercial spaces such as shops, clubs and restaurants became testing grounds for new ideas and materials in the second half of the 20th century, before considering contemporary interiors, where digital technology and the rise of ‘experience design’ redefined what interiors could be.
The book opens with the 1925 Paris International Exhibition, which is not simply a convenient centenary marker but the event that gave rise to the term Art Deco and showcased interiors as complete environments, setting the stylistic tone for British theatres, hotels and restaurants in the following decades. These lavish new commercial interiors combined cutting-edge architectural construction with modern decorative schemes and electric lighting, turning the interior itself into a stage set and bringing contemporary aesthetics to a mass audience.
The book also profiles design personalities throughout each of the chapters, and I particularly enjoyed learning about interior decorator Syrie Maugham (1879–1955), whose experimental approach mixed Regency furniture with modern pieces and who boldly pioneered the concept of an ‘all-white room’, complete with white wool rug, white sofas, white lights and even white hydrangeas. Perhaps a forerunner for the white cube space of the future? I find this book is at its most enjoyable when the narrative intersects with specific designers and their projects.
The final chapter of the book, which takes us from the turn of this century to the present day, inevitably addresses themes such as digitisation, sustainability and globalisation. It was encouraging to see designers such as Ilse Crawford and Nina Woodcroft included. Crawford’s human-centred practice and Nina+Co’s use of bio-based materials throughout her designs highlight how sustainability and wellbeing are reshaping the field.
The book is ambitious in scope and rigorous in detail. It reads more like a textbook than a coffee-table book, but the consistency of visual references throughout helps anchor the text. This book is written by authors with an academic background and experience in design history publishing: Drew Plunkett has written many books on interior design detailing, while Bruce Peter has a specialist interest in ship design, and the sections on cruise ship design earlier in the book are unexpected but fit well within the book’s thesis.
The authors draw a sharp line between ‘interior design’, which they align with commercial practice, and ‘interior decoration’, which they place in the domestic sphere. While this clarifies the book’s focus, it arguably oversimplifies the profession: many residential projects also involve spatial and material interventions that go beyond decoration. That blurring of roles is, in fact, part of what makes collaboration between architects and interior designers so vital.
The commercial interior design sector is therefore this book’s distinctive focus rather than residential interior decoration (as it is referred to by the writers). This makes it a useful reference book for those working in retail, hospitality and office design, and its emphasis on commercial projects offers architects valuable insight into the kinds of spaces where collaboration with interior designers is most critical.
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